Quick Child Language Blog
I have the luxury of a sleeping toddler and a content baby being held by DH, so I will use the opportunity to note down some observations on DD's recent language development.
But before I start, hugs to miriammoules, she needs them.
As you know, DD is acquiring two languages, German and English. Her German is very dominant, to the extent that she will try speaking to you in German the first time she sees you. However, at the age of 2 years 6 months, half a year after her German came through, her English made a huge leap forward. I think this is due partly to the fact that she's interacting with 2-3 year olds, who are far more verbal and where she HAS to speak English, but also partly to the afternoon a week she spent at the Scottish Parliament Creche (free for up to 4 hours if you are a visitor!) where she often found child:staff ratios of 1:1 or 1:2.
Her English is nursery English - don't do that! Mine! I don't want to! Don't push! She is also becoming adept at code switching. When we had our lovely Doula, Claire, she quickly realised that she had to speak English to Claire. She is also using quite a bit of English with Adam, since other children more often speak English than German.
Her German still lacks many function words. Articles are ok, but the copula "ist" is often dropped. Her word order can be very free. For example "DS Papa nehmen" means that Daddy should take DS (object, subject, verb-infinitive). She's also reverting to a structure with an empty auxiliary at the front which she used for pointing a year or so ago. At that time, she used to say "Isse baby." (is-this Baby - there's a baby). These days, she'll omit the auxiliary or put it in the right place "Da isia baby" - there is baby. She still shows this construction though in past-tense sentences. She's only recently, in the past couple of months, started talking about the past, and it's still hit or miss whether she'll tell you about her day at nursery. When she does, she'll say "war-das Freunde?" (was-this friends = friends are her nursery friends) or "war-das plielplatz?" (was-this playground?) - note the rising intonation, as in a question. Probably picked it up from us trying to question her about her day.
Phonetically, she mixes consonant harmony and cluster simplification. For example, her baby brother is "-n" instead of "-m", because n is the place of articulation of the other consonant in his name. She also has this habit of shifting cluster-initial sibilants such as /S/ in /SmEt6lIN/ Schmetterling, butterfly to the middle of the word. So, "Schmetterling" becomes /mEkESlIN/ (again, consonant harmony pulling alveolar /t/ down to velar /k/ in line with velar /N/). Up until a couple of weeks ago, snail "Schnecke" used to be /nEkIS/ instead of /SnEk@/. /S/ itself isn't quite there yet, but it's coming along nicely. Her intonation is weird though. Almost every word, and sometimes every syllable, gets its own little intonational phrase.
Her morphology is coming along very nicely. She inflects adjectives, albeit sometimes not quite correctly, and has started overgeneralising. For example, today she proudly announced "Baby hat auszieht" - baby has undressed - instead of "Baby hat sich ausgezogen". She used the regular participle instead of the irregular one, a sure sign that she's learning how to make present participles.
Oh, and regarding "Baby" - in German, she seems to be talking about herself in the third person, mostly as "baby", rarely as "Ruth". I have seen PLENTY of evidence of "my, mine" and I've heard her say "I don't want that" but that could be repetition of nursery stock phrases. It probably doesn't help that we often talk to her about ourselves in the third person ("Mummy needs to go now").
Apologies for the general lack of comments by the way - I mostly have a child on my lap these days, and when I'm at a computer, I either have a baby strapped to my front or am nursing. Answers to last entry meme will follow shortly.
But before I start, hugs to miriammoules, she needs them.
As you know, DD is acquiring two languages, German and English. Her German is very dominant, to the extent that she will try speaking to you in German the first time she sees you. However, at the age of 2 years 6 months, half a year after her German came through, her English made a huge leap forward. I think this is due partly to the fact that she's interacting with 2-3 year olds, who are far more verbal and where she HAS to speak English, but also partly to the afternoon a week she spent at the Scottish Parliament Creche (free for up to 4 hours if you are a visitor!) where she often found child:staff ratios of 1:1 or 1:2.
Her English is nursery English - don't do that! Mine! I don't want to! Don't push! She is also becoming adept at code switching. When we had our lovely Doula, Claire, she quickly realised that she had to speak English to Claire. She is also using quite a bit of English with Adam, since other children more often speak English than German.
Her German still lacks many function words. Articles are ok, but the copula "ist" is often dropped. Her word order can be very free. For example "DS Papa nehmen" means that Daddy should take DS (object, subject, verb-infinitive). She's also reverting to a structure with an empty auxiliary at the front which she used for pointing a year or so ago. At that time, she used to say "Isse baby." (is-this Baby - there's a baby). These days, she'll omit the auxiliary or put it in the right place "Da isia baby" - there is baby. She still shows this construction though in past-tense sentences. She's only recently, in the past couple of months, started talking about the past, and it's still hit or miss whether she'll tell you about her day at nursery. When she does, she'll say "war-das Freunde?" (was-this friends = friends are her nursery friends) or "war-das plielplatz?" (was-this playground?) - note the rising intonation, as in a question. Probably picked it up from us trying to question her about her day.
Phonetically, she mixes consonant harmony and cluster simplification. For example, her baby brother is "-n" instead of "-m", because n is the place of articulation of the other consonant in his name. She also has this habit of shifting cluster-initial sibilants such as /S/ in /SmEt6lIN/ Schmetterling, butterfly to the middle of the word. So, "Schmetterling" becomes /mEkESlIN/ (again, consonant harmony pulling alveolar /t/ down to velar /k/ in line with velar /N/). Up until a couple of weeks ago, snail "Schnecke" used to be /nEkIS/ instead of /SnEk@/. /S/ itself isn't quite there yet, but it's coming along nicely. Her intonation is weird though. Almost every word, and sometimes every syllable, gets its own little intonational phrase.
Her morphology is coming along very nicely. She inflects adjectives, albeit sometimes not quite correctly, and has started overgeneralising. For example, today she proudly announced "Baby hat auszieht" - baby has undressed - instead of "Baby hat sich ausgezogen". She used the regular participle instead of the irregular one, a sure sign that she's learning how to make present participles.
Oh, and regarding "Baby" - in German, she seems to be talking about herself in the third person, mostly as "baby", rarely as "Ruth". I have seen PLENTY of evidence of "my, mine" and I've heard her say "I don't want that" but that could be repetition of nursery stock phrases. It probably doesn't help that we often talk to her about ourselves in the third person ("Mummy needs to go now").
Apologies for the general lack of comments by the way - I mostly have a child on my lap these days, and when I'm at a computer, I either have a baby strapped to my front or am nursing. Answers to last entry meme will follow shortly.